15 November 2016

#25 Project Transformation 4: Sweden!

I’ve loved sharing with you the transformations of the #25Projects as they come in, and there are still plenty more to come, 21 in fact! This week the space I want to focus on is a little train station cafe in a place called Hindås, in rural Sweden.

When I picked this place as one of the spaces I was intrigued to see how the end result would look, and as the pictures were sent to me I was amazed at the incredible amount of heart and soul went in to the whole process. What truly stood out was how much of a sense of caring and community came through, and this was cemented by the wonderful description of the event sent to me by one of the volunteers, Märta Waldrop.

So lovely and moving was this letter sent to me that I think it best that you hear from the volunteers in their own words about the transformation of the space.

Take it away, Märta!

Before pictures of the space.

"On the morning of Saturday the 21st of October, giggles could be heard from a corner of the train station located in the middle of the fairly modest Hindås community. They had been going since ten, waving brushes and rollers dripping with Chalk Paint® around in a room where nobody had paid any heed for many, many years. Until now.

The room, which for many years had been nothing but a humble goods reception, was now getting a facelift. For what purpose? To make it into what would be called ‘Hedda's Room’

Hedda Rasmussen Key, who has been almost as overlooked as the goods reception that was now getting some attention, was the sister of author and suffragette Ellen Key. She was also married to a man named Yngve Rasmussen, the architect that made Hindås Train Station into what it looks like today.

Hedda Rasmussen Key

Yngve Rasmussen

When it was announced that Hindås Train Station had been picked as one of the 25 winners of the #25Project, the room that got picked to be repainted and, in a way, resurrected, was the goods reception. In the spirit of bringing back something that has been a bit pushed aside in the big scheme of things, it was decided to dedicate the room to Hedda, making sure that she had a space to be remembered as well.

A room for a woman who lived during a time when she had no say in the community, and died after suffrage for women had become legal. In the spirit of this, although quite an alien notion in our modern times, women played the biggest role in redecorating Hedda’s Room.

Everything was painted, with the walls painted in Duck Egg Blue Wall Paint. Walls, chairs, radiators, tiles, cabinets, even the refrigerator went from orange to a striped design inspired by the fabric from the Annie Sloan Fabric Collection. Music was playing, paint was splashing, coffee was drunk, and some participants also fell over at times! Volunteers from both the local community as well as from miles and miles away came to help create this new space, and this collaboration between different people, old and young, helped infuse the walls with a sense of belonging and inclusiveness for all who’ll enter in the future.

Freedom, acceptance, openness, courageousness, and kindness. That is what this room will hold. More and more people will bring their stories to this room, during concerts and theaters, as well as during the weekly language cafés. This is a room for all people, people such as Hedda.”

How utterly gorgeous is that description? I believe it truly matches with the photographs you can see here.